The Community Assistance Council, a nonprofit that helps south Kansas City&rsquo;s needy, plans to start a community garden next spring and give the tomatoes, green beans and other produce away through its food pantry.</p><p>It&rsquo;s going to be named Carol&rsquo;s Garden after executive director Carol Bird Owsley, who has spent 25-plus years with the agency. </p><p>Owsley, an avid gardener, had mentioned it would be nice to have a garden, but she didn&rsquo;t know that her board and council staffers would secretly move forward with the project and dedicate it to her. </p><p>Owsley didn&rsquo;t learn about that until a few weeks ago, during a dedication ceremony.</p><p>&ldquo;I never dreamed it would be something like this,&rdquo; she said.</p><p>Guests have donated hoses, clippers and other tools, as well as cash to get the project started. Carter Broadcasting Group has agreed to help find volunteers and record public-service announcements about the garden, said the assistance council&rsquo;s programs coordinator, Pam Meek.</p><p>On Owsley&rsquo;s desk is a plaque that will hang in the garden, once the weather turns warm next spring. The garden will sit just outside her office window at Blue Ridge and 108th Street on what&rsquo;s now a patch of green grass.</p><p>The Community Assistance Council has a consistent track record of putting used (or underused) things to good use. Its headquarters, just north of Ruskin High School, is the former administration building for the Hickman Mills School District.</p><p>The agency has a clothes closet filled with hand-me-downs, and a local Panera Bread outlet sends over fresh, but unsold bread. The shelves are stocked with nonperishable food in boxes and cans.</p><p>Having fresh produce will be a nice addition, Owsley said.</p><p>The agency operates the pantry, the clothes closet, a Meals on Wheels service, a utility assistance program and a menu of other services on an annual budget of about $750,000. Its leaders collaborate with other agencies and &ldquo;try not to reinvent the wheel,&rdquo; Owsley said. </p><p>Eight staffers are employed at CAC, though not all are full-time. They&rsquo;re supported by volunteers, a dozen congregations, some civic groups and many others in the south Kansas City area.</p><p>&ldquo;They&rsquo;re probably THE support group our community,&rdquo; said Regina Taylor, the Hickman Mills district&rsquo;s director of community affairs.</p><p>The nonprofit was formed back in the early 1970s, growing out of a food bank operated by churches in south Kansas City. Owsley, then a young mother, was the council&rsquo;s first employee, a part-timer, and before CAC had a permanent headquarters, the organization&rsquo;s phones and desks were kept at her house.</p><p>Forget about computers &ndash; they didn&rsquo;t have any back then, she joked.</p><p>If the Community Assistance Council has grown larger over the years, so has the need, Owsley said. What started as a basic food pantry now helps people with medical expenses, transportation and getting box fans to the elderly during the summer.</p><p>&ldquo;There are a lot of people struggling in this area,&rdquo; Owsley said. &ldquo;But there are a lot of people who are working hard and caring for them.&rdquo;</p><p>The nonprofit is thinking about other ways to help people, before they get into emergency situations, board president Doug Smith said. Owsley would love to offer classes on budgeting, job searches and cooking nutritiously. </p><p>&ldquo;I think she has a lot of vision for the area, a lot of passion,&rdquo; Smith said of Owsley. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s a very dedicated person.&rdquo;</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head">SOUTH KANSAS CITY</span></strong><br /> </div>